Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1887-10-14

WHY THE MISERABLE TENANTRY ARE TURNED
OUT OF THEIR HOMES INTO THE PUBLIC
WAY.
There are many people in this country,
says tho Boston Journal who have the i'm
preston that the Irish tenants who are now
being turned out of their homes Ia hun
drods by the Irish landlords are led to suf-
fer the loss Of thoir all through the bad ad-
vice Of their leaders, and that they could
as well pay their rents now as in the past if
they had the disposition to do So If this
were the case, the evicted tenants would
be deserving Of less sympathy than they
merit. Unfortunately it is not so the ten
ants are unable to pay their rents, because
they have been raised from time to time
during the last thirty five years In the
meantime, the value of farm products has
rather decreased than advanced The re
pcal pf the corn laws, aud cheap ocean
transportation ami cheap railway rates be
tween our seaboard and tho wheat fields of
the West have been almost diaantrous TO
farmers IN Great Britain and Ireland This
fact has had no weight with the Irish land
lord for while the products Of Irish farms
have been decreasing in value the rents
have been increased from 30 to 300 per
cent Mr. Robert B. Porter native Of
England, but now an American citizen and
Il well-known journalist, gives, in letter
to the Philadelphia Press, an account of
the eyirtiun in Ardagh, Limerick county,
10y hallltis from abroad, sustained by the
hayunets Of the British cunstahulary. The
story Of squalid and hopeless poverty and
general wretchedness which Mr. Porter
tells would not he believed had it not been
previously presented TO the public a score
Of times by impartial correspondents. The
bailitis seemed to be brutal in the exercise
their authority, wautonly destroying the
miserable furniture OF the wretched people
whom they turned out uf their novels into
the public ways, old and helpless women
and young children, with scarcely rags
enough upon them to protect their bodies
from the weather. The most valuable part
of Ne pgrter's latter is q list Of the evicted
tenants with the rents paid in iAil before
the estate came into thu hands Of the pres
ent landlord, with the percentage Of in
creasu which lie has imposed and the per
cent which the landlords rates have been
reduced by the Land Court. The name OF
each Of the tenants is given and the increase
in each case is stated The smallest in
crease is - per cent and the highest is sos
per cent since 1851, and the average for
the sixteen tenants is over $50 per cent in
crease The Land Court, which il by no
means friendly N Ihe tenant, has considered
each Of theAu uases, aud, in its Judgment
the rents should be reduced from 25 TO ~
per cent. As the judgment of the court
does not seem to be- enforced, the rents
apparently stand at the figure Of the land
lord, and are from 80 per cent to l6O per
cent above the value placed thereon by the
court, the average being over - per cent
In the series Questions Of the Day, No
IL, y q, i Putnams SoI,s publish the Pail
Mall Hazette's chapters on Irish Landlord
ism, by Henry Norman, in which the state
ments Of Mr. Porter regarding the increase
of rents are fully confirmed by figures taken
in the case of the evicted tenants from the
Bodyke estates. One instance will suffice
tenant who was eYipteA last June occu-
pied 20 acres Of Indifferent land which was
valued at a rental OF Is shillings an acre
in 1880 the appraisal being made by the
agent ot tho andlurd, II wHs gradually
raised until in 1870 il was - per acre One
tenants rent was raised ut one bound from
$50 to fs3 because he built thereon a house
with his own money. In the estate referred
to the total rents were reduced by the Land
Court from el524 to 1893, which is the
rate which will be in force when the land
law ga0s inta effect The numerous evic-
tions which are now going on are made TO
escape the provisions Of that law.
The fact thus appears TO be that the Irish
tenants cannot pay their rents and are
driven from the homes in which they have
always lived and fr9m the land which would
be worthless but for their betterments be-
cause they cannot by any possibility pay or
meet the demands of the absentee landlords.